A Game of Shadows
by Caina
Summary: It is a race against time for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to uncover and thwart Professor Moriarty's nefarious endgame but the evil Professor has a powerful weapon on his side: the sometimes ruthless and always enigmatic Irene Adler.


_**Author's Note**__: When I heard that Irene Adler was only going to be a cameo in the new Sherlock Holmes movie I was furious. Regardless of what some may think of her role in canon (and for the record, Arthur Conan Doyle was not particular about keeping his own canon consistent and was almost annoyingly open-minded about how people chose to reinterpret it), she was set up in the movie-verse as a pivotal character: both in terms of plot as Sherlock's only link to Moriarty and in terms of character arc as Sherlock's great love/adversary. _

_Incidentally, I have also noted an appalling lack of Holmes/Adler stories on this site and the Interwebz as a whole. As someone who found the chemistry and tension between McAdams and Downing Jnr. so palpable that you could cut through it with a butterknife, and who enjoyed tremendously the Trio moments with Law, I'm at a loss why the fandom, usually so good at expanding and exploring on the source material, has barely ventured into this realm. _

_So this is my attempt to correct that. For the record, I don't know any spoilers about the upcoming movie so everything that is here is from my knowledge of the books which I have read and re-read since I was nine and my own imagination. If there are uncanny coincidences come December 2011, it's probably due to drawing from the same source material._

_Please if you read this story and you enjoy it, don't hesitate to drop a line. I'm very open to feedback so even if you didn't enjoy it, I'd like to know what you think and how it can be improved. Now… enough of me babbling. The game's afoot!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1, The Joker<strong>

Room 2B, Grand Hotel was leased to a Mr. H. Godwin. It was certainly a tall, trim figure in a bowler hat and smart suit that stepped through the door with the brisk stride of a city gentleman, casually dropping the walking stick on the floor as he approached the ornate dressing table. Godwin turned on the dim gaslight, and gave a quick, wary glance across the room, missing almost nothing, and picked up the correspondence waiting for him on the table. He flipped through them with one hand and removed his hat with the other, then his closely fitted hairnet and shook out the mane of loose red curls that tumbled down his – or more accurately her back.

She dropped the letters to shrug out of her coat, unbutton her waistcoat, reaching around the back as if to loosen it from her trousers, and whipping out a revolver in the space of a blink.

"Show yourself or I will shoot you where you stand," Irene Adler said with a voice like iron.

There was a long pause and just as she began to doubt the intuition that warned her that she was being watched… a chuckle filled the air and the voice of her nightmares spoke.

"Good evening, Ms. Adler. What a pity that you discovered my presence before discarding your costume."

The hand that was holding the revolver shook, but she did not lower the weapon. "Show yourself," she snapped with a bravery that she did not feel.

The light in the far corner of the room came on. It was a reading light, barely enough to alter the shadows in the room but it was enough for her to see the shadowy human shape sitting by the window.

Without missing a beat, she fired the revolver…

The empty click sounded louder than a gunshot.

"I knew you would attempt some foolishness of this sort, Ms. Adler," the man by the window said as casually as if she had just offered him tea. "I took a little precaution to make sure you didn't do anything that you'll regret."

Irene Adler barely heard him – her mind would spin through the probabilities later – her fingers closed around the hairpin that was always woven through her curls and she waited for her chance.

"What are you doing in my room?" She ground out, and was pleased at how steady her voice sounded.

"I am not in the business of hunting down my employees, Ms. Adler, unless I wish to terminate their appointments… permanently. Consider this a rare and only compliment to you." As always his voice was hoarse, but not unpleasant.

"I do not work for you any longer, Professor."

"Indeed?"

"I know what you wanted me for – as a distraction to Holmes. Well, you got what you wanted. I've completed my work for you."

"I've told you already: I will end our arrangement, not you."

"You want your money back?" In a sharp movement, she pulled out the bag of coins from her discarded coat and she flung it at the shadow. "Take it."

He laughed. The sound of it sent gooseflesh up her arms.

"I will _never _work for you again," Irene said through clenched teeth.

"I told you what would happen the last time you left my employ."

_Sherlock knows about you and he is just as brilliant as you are. You will not catch him off-guard. _She was not stupid enough to say her thoughts out loud. "I don't care what happens to Sherlock Holmes," she retorted. "I'm not going to be your slave for his sake."

"Slave? What an unfortunate attitude, Ms. Adler. Especially since you and I are going to keep our arrangement for a long time."

"If you think you can kill me…"

"Do not insult my intelligence." And for the first time, he sounded genuinely angry. "Threatening to kill you is not quite as effective as, say, threatening to kill someone that you care about."

She threw her hair back, her mind still working furiously, trying to remember, to reassure herself that there had been no chances, no loopholes. "I don't care what happens to Sherlock Holmes," she repeated. "You're welcome to go after any of my former husbands."

"We both know that Holmes is not your only weakness. The Wakefield family, for instance…"

Her hands shook. It was only her skill on the stage that kept her façade from shaking.

So he knew. After months of hints and veiled threats. He knew her deepest secret. Long after the luster of his coins had faded, he had kept her on a leash with the possibility of this knowledge. And now he was confirming her worst nightmares.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said softly and even to her own ears, the lie was weak.

He didn't bother to contradict her. "The ship that left to the Americas this evening is filled with my people, Ms. Adler. One word from me – or _no_ word for me – and that which you care for most in this world will be destroyed in the most gruesome, most horrendous manner that can be imagined."

Her mind filled with so many thoughts, so many plans, so many calculations at the same time, that they overwhelmed her and she could make no sense of anything but one:

He had discovered her secret, her greatest, most sacred weakness: the weakness that she was willing to do anything, even destroy the man she loved for – and that was one chip she could not bargain against.

Irene Adler had never been so out-maneuvered in her entire life.

She sat down.

"That's better," Moriarty whispered as the hair pin fell from her nerveless fingers with a silent whisper on the soft carpet. "Now, let us discuss your new assignment."

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><p><strong><em>TBC<em>**


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